Book Thief101: Ty for the review (well, many reviews), but I want to address the part about Lavi going after Lenalee when he's 20. There series starts with him at 18, and right now we should be at around a year later, so he should be 19 now. Although there's hints of attraction between him and Lenalee (like on the Ark), I don't think he's near asking her out just yet, especially with what he could see as competition with both Allen and Kanda. IDK, just made sense to me that he'd be around 20 when he finally did. It's just a year from where we are now. :D (And IDK how old Cloud is)


Requiem of Time: Chapter Twenty-Five - Allen part 1


Similar to what Allen had done only seconds prior, a small vibration could be felt through the ground as Maria's grave rose up solidly, next to Sarah's opened one. This happened unnoticed by all.

Rhode was staring at Cross through the corner of narrowed eyes, not at all pleased by the interruption. But then, that wasn't all that had her attention currently. Positioned how she was in Allen's lap, quite comfortably once she followed the phantom memories, she had been partially inside his thick, open Marshal jacket and against his chest. Now that she had moved, a few things about his bared chest had caught her attention.

There was a time it had been smooth and flawless, she remembered that from the rewinding town. Now… Two thick, pink scars blemished that chest. One she knew he got from the black Crown Clown, and by the other's almost perfect match, she knew he had gotten the other from one she hadn't been around to see. Aside from those two marks, he had faint scratches that she had a suspicion of her Noah sister on his lower stomach. From her position, which leaning forward also opened his coat enough to see his left shoulder, she could see another scar just before his new Innocence. She grinned slightly at that. That had been her own candle, when confronting Marshal Yeeger.

But then there was the last thing, most noticeable of all, and what brought her attention to his chest in the first place. Right over his beating heart was a white blemish - certainly not flesh, nor bone - that was fused to him somehow. She remembered what Lulubell had said, stabbing his heart, and that appeared to be the result. Her eyes flashed to Cross again, making his way towards their table, and then she looked back to the mark.

Bringing her hand up, Rhode touched the mark. Cool and smooth were what she noticed first, a sharp burning pain came second. She fingered the mark for a second longer, twisting the pain around in her mind like it was a toy before pulling her hand back and watching her fingers regenerate seared flesh. So Allen's Innocence had saved him. Millennie would be interested in that.

Rhode looked from her fingers up into Allen's face, and saw him looking back with that hardened face of his. The kind she had seen on men thrice his age. Unnerving, yet almost attractive. Eh, who was she kidding. Of course she found it attractive. She smiled at him, and his returning smile softened his look none. More mischievous memories told her how to soften this enigma of a man… who should have been a boy.

She wanted to unravel Allen's mysteries, to spin his life around in her fingers, to joyfully watch his life take flight and then clip his wings just to see how he fell. The problem was, whenever she wanted something, there was a flock of memories ready to provide. Allen in pain, Allen betrayed, Allen guilty, Allen happy, sad, passionate, loving, concerned, afraid, mad, mad, broken, put together again… She had them all, flashes and flashes and flashes of him, him and her, and so many others. It was like she had played all her games with him already, yet, instead of making that dull like with her other dolls, he made her want to try them again.

Maybe I do love him, Rhode thought to herself, recalling her wedding and other memories that didn't happen.

Allen knew instantly when Rhode touched the mark left behind by his Innocence, having caused him equal pain so long as contact was maintained. Innocence and Noah did not mix well. Still, despite Cross's sudden appearance - and maybe on top of being saved from saying the truth - he found it easy to smile back. It troubled him, however, how similar her smile was to the ones his wife used to give him.

Once again pushing those thoughts aside, Allen turned to the table, seeing Cross with his legs propped up and leaning back in his chair. The other Noah were all giving him looks of varying malice, while Skin looked ready to chew threw the table, audibly growling while he glared at not one but TWO Exorcists in his presence.

By this time, Allen shared the Noah of Wrath's rage. Joyd's vague answer, his master's quick dodging, Bondomu's lack of answer… He had enough of this! Maneuvering around Rhode in that position had become almost second nature long ago, and he slammed the table with his claw. Facing the four people who were from his own time, returned through a method he must find, he turned nearly hysteric.

"How are you all here?! Why are you the people I know?! Did I finally snap?" Allen noticed his top hat had fallen off from the jolt, and he stared at it. Exactly the same as the one he had in his first life. Was he even sane? Pieces just kept slipping through from his old life. How many were real?! "Am I just sitting somewhere, staring at the wall and imagining this all? What the hell-"

A hard slap nearly forced Allen out of his chair, but a subconscious need to keep Rhode from harm - even a little fall - held him rooted in place. His jaw nearly felt shattered, though. That was real enough about his master.

Cross was standing next to him now, glaring. "Annoying as ever. If we are going to speak, speak sense."

Allen glared back at the man, working feeling back into his jaw. "How?" He watched his master return to his seat and was aware of Rhode's dark purple eyes back on him.

Once his legs were back up on the table, and he leaning back, and after lighting a cigarette, Cross nodded. "Better." He paused for a moment, waving out the match in his hand. "It happened on the way here, near western China. It was like waking up suddenly, with only a vague sense of when and where I was. The memories of now seem as old as they should be; I remember what you told me on the train. As for what you're asking me, the real how, I can not remember."

Allen nearly growled, but Tyki spoke up the moment Cross finished, "The first Exorcist on my list is when I… 'awoke.' I don't know if that explains much."

Seeing as he was finally getting somewhere, Allen looked to the twins - much quieter in their awakened form. In unison, they shrugged and said, "Western China as well."

Allen opened his mouth to press for more detailed answers, but Rhode beat him to it. Cautiously, and looking to her family, she asked, "What are you all talking about? Tyki?"

With a glance towards Allen, Joyd said slowly, "Do you remember those images, Rhode, after Yeeger?"

Rhode nodded, stealing an affectionate glance towards Allen. "Both times after Allen freed me from that… Crown Clown, I had memories that weren't mine, yet were of me. Do you have them too, Jasdebi, Sweet-tooth?"

"My name is not Sweet-tooth!" Skin shouted, near frothing at the mouth as he lurched to his feet. But his glare wasn't for Rhode. "What the hell are two of those damned Exorcist doing here?!"

With a hand on his shoulder, Joyd calmed down the unstable Noah. Both twins looked unsure of how to respond, instead turning to Tyki to do the talking.

Joyd sighed, giving Allen a shocking look of remorse before facing Rhode seriously. "Those memories are real, Rhode, of a time that we - Jasdero, Debito, myself, this Cross, and even your Allen - are from. We were all sent to the past, Allen here by an Akuma, the rest of us we are unsure about. Somehow, you have been receiving fragments of your former life, myself included before I completely awoke."

Tyki paused only to point a finger to Allen, and to drive his point home with a final comment. "That man you are sitting on was your husband, also the host for the Fourteenth, and the man who will bring down my Earl of the Millennium eventually."

Perhaps not the best way to go about it, but Allen felt a relief at not having to say it himself. However, her reaction to it was still yet to come.

Rhode was stiff with shock on his lap, and there was a sudden distance between them - their proximity was a tad uncomfortable. She had near enough been told she had been manipulated into like him, Allen figured. He could not see the desperation on his face as he awaited Rhode next move.

Rhode moved slowly, body still rigid. She stood, pulling herself off Allen's lap to stand on her own. She knew enough about Tyki to know when he was joking, and when things were painfully serious. She was old enough to not suddenly sprout denials, but… Glancing around the room, all she saw were strangers staring back.

"I-I need to finish downloading the Ark." She created one of her doors, and quickly escaped inside.

Allen was silent for a moment, watching as Rhode's door closed with a snap and quickly retreated into the ground. His hand was outstretched, as if to grab her, his body half off the chair, as if to chase after her, and his mouth half open, as if to ask her to stop. But that was as far as he got in all three regards.

And with the disappearance of his wife, her rejection of him, something inside his mind - something already cracked - finally gave in and shattered.


AN: I feel rude for not saying it last chapter, while many mentioned it to me, so… Happy Belated New Years! …Er, wh-why are some of you sharpening knives?